USS Samuel N. Moore DD-747

USS Samuel N. Moore (DD-747) was an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer built for the US Navy by the union steel workers Bethlehem Steel Company at its Staten Island shipyard. She was launched on 23 February 1944 and commissioned on 24 June 1944, with Cmdr. Horatio A. Lincoln in command.

World War II

The Moore arrived at the Ulithi Atoll Naval Base in the Carolines on 3 November 1944. There she joined the Fast Carrier Task Force and was charged with protecting the carriers that launched numerous air strikes against Japanese positions in the Philippines, the Ryukyus, Formosa, the Pescadores, Indochina, China, and the Japanese home islands. She sustained her first damage not in battle, however, but in a typhoon on 5 June 1945.

After Japan surrendered, Samuel N. Moore remained with the occupation forces, visiting Shanghai and Tsingtao, China, and Pusan, Korea.

From 1947 into 1950, she operated out of San Diego. On 1 May 1950, she was ordered to the Far East. She was in port at Hong Kong when the Korean War broke out that summer.

Korean War

The Moore was ordered north on 27 June 1950. Before the end of fighting in Korea, she would serve three tours of duty, providing protective escort for carriers, shore bombardments, and routine patrols before returning to her home port in Long Beach for the last time in 1953.

From 1955 through 1959, Moore made annual deployments to the Far East, visiting the Philippines, Taiwan, and Japan. In 1960 and 1961, she served with a specialized antisubmarine task force in that region before returning to the States for operations off the west coast in 1962 and 1963.

Vietnam

During the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964, Samuel N. Moore was on deployment to the Far East. Over the next five years, she was deployed to Vietnam several times, providing gunfire support off the coast, operating as a plane guard in the South China Sea, and firing on targets in the Mekong Delta. In 1967, she patrolled off the coast of North Vietnam as part of Operation Sea Dragon, and screened aircraft carriers in the Tonkin Gulf. Moore finally returned to Long Beach on 26 February 1969.

In April, she became a Naval Reserve training ship based out of Tacoma, Washington. Decommissioned on 24 October, she was struck from the Navy list that same day.

Taiwan

The USS Samuel N. Moore was sold on 10 December 1969 to the Republic of China, where she served as Heng Yang (DD-2) until May 1995.

Asbestos Risks

In the first seven decades of the 20th century, every American naval destroyer widely installed the mineral asbestos for insulation and as fire control. Although nearly all sections of the Samuel N. Moore offered at least some asbestos risk, a ship's boilers and engineering sections were usually the areas where crewmen or dockworkers were most likely to be endangered by airborne asbestos. Whenever the ship was damaged in combat, by Mother Nature, or by accident, it often exposed asbestos-containing fixtures to the air or subjected them to fire or water, which meant increased danger of having high levels of asbestos inhalation.

The most serious risk of harmful exposure with asbestos is experienced where fibers become damaged and easily broken, because when tiny asbestos fibers go into the air, the particles can then be inhaled by workers near the exposure. Medical research has shown that major diseases such as asbestosis, cancer of the lungs and peritoneal mesothelioma are linked to extensive asbestos ingestion.

Workers who were exposed to asbestos fibers, therefore, should immediately notify their health care providers, as most asbestos-related conditions are tricky to diagnose. To learn more about the diagnostic process, available treatment options and financial assistance to help pay for medical costs, please fill out this form to receive a comprehensive packet in the mail.

It is an unfortunate fact that in addition to the inherent dangers of war, servicemen who fought aboard ships such as the Samuel N. Moore were frequently imperiled by asbestos exposure. This was true of the Moore, as she endured moderate damage in battle and underwent a wide range of reworkings and overhauls. Despite the absence of large-scale battle damage and redesign work, sailors who worked aboard the ship were still endangered by asbestos in the daily conduct of their duty. This danger also existed for repair personnel such as machinists and electricians who maintained the destroyer whenever she spent time in port.

Based on our increased understanding of the consequences of asbestos inhalation, servicemen who served and toiled aboard this vessel at any point in their career, as well as those who served on similar ships, must learn more about the risks posed by wartime exposure to asbestos fibers.

Sources:

Destroyers Index